'Economy Is Good' in Auto Repairs: Snap-On CEO

If you want to fix the U.S. economy, it helps to have a good mechanic.

Snap-On CEO Nicholas Pinchuk said his company's automotive and garage-mechanics sector was up 10 percent in the second quarter.

"For the automotive-repair sector, the economy is good," he told CNBC Thursday.

Snap-On , which also makes hand and power tools, diagnostics software, and shop equipment, reported second-quarter sales up more than 12 percent to $726.7 million, with earnings climbing to $66.9 million, or $1.14 a share, minus the expense of an arbitration settlement.

Pinchuk said there are 300 million vehicles on the road in North America and 47 percent of them are more than 10 years old, so he expects continued growth in the repair sector.

But Pinchuk sees even more growth coming from emerging markets, particularly China, which "sold more new cars than America last year," he said.

"I see a wave of repair coming, as big as the American business if not bigger," Pinchuk said. "Today it's five percent to ten percent of our business but we see a lot of upside."